USDA Extends Registration for Market Facilitation Program

Jan 11, 2019

USDA has extended the deadline for agricultural producers to apply for Market Facilitation Program payments provided by the agency’s trade mitigation program.

The original application deadline had been January 15, 2019. But farmers have been unable to apply for the program since the lapse in federal funding caused the closure of USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices at the end of business on December 28, 2018.

According to a statement issued by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, the application deadline will now be extended for a period of time equal to the number of days FSA were closed once the government shutdown ends.

The Market Facilitation Program has been making payments directly to farmers who have suffered trade damage,” said Perdue. “Using existing funds, we were able to keep FSA offices open as long as possible, but unfortunately had to close them when funding ran out. Farmers who have already applied for the program and certified their 2018 production have continued to receive payments.”

Source : CotttonGrower

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.